A Day at the Fair
by Kathryn1
Summary: The sequel to Child of Fire, ALex and Courtnie are adjusting well to their new surrondings and have a chance to prove it!


#### Copyright 1997 by me Kathryn. Again Alex and Courtnie and Greg are mine and everyone else is Filmation's or whoever. Don't sue me, please!

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# A Day at the Fair

Scritch Scritch SCRAAATTTCHHH!!

SCRAAATCCCHHH

Alex rolled over to investigate the source of the horrible noise that had jolted her from sound sleep. Of course it was Courtnie, sharpening her sword on a piece of stone. Okay so it was the beginning of the week. "Do you have to do that here?"

"Actually yes. You need to get up." Courtnie smiled sweetly. "The village festival is today, remember. We're leaving in like a half hour for the village and if you don't want to walk, you better be ready."

"Who says I have to walk?" Alex mumbled sleepily.

"I've seen you try to ride. If you aren't leaving with me then you get to walk cause I am the only one nice enough to give you a ride. I am leaving with the group. You need me so you'll be ready or you get to walk to the village."

Alex rolled back over and groaned.

Half an hour later, Alex was dressed and semi-coherent. Courtnie was saddling Wildfire, her horse. "I can't believe you. What are we doing again?"

Adora looked at her. "The village festival is today and we must go to pay our respect to Queen Angella as well as keeping an eye out for the Horde. You know how badly they want Bright Moon back."

"Cool." A festival was almost as good as a party, and Alex loved a good party. And the prospect of a fight was tempting. Kicking Horde butt was always a good time. Alex had grown to like Etheria, especially the idea of having magic powers. Just as Courtnie had spent her spare time learning to swordfight and honing the martial arts skills she already had, Alex had learned to use her firepower in a number of interesting ways. One of the new ones she was working on was trying to fly. Hey if Storm could ride the winds and hot air rises then . . .

So far no luck. Most of the time she just sort of dropped down to the ground. Like a rock. She had learned a levitation spell from Castaspella but that didn't help much either. Apparently, she wasn't strong enough to use it. Or it didn't work on self, because she could levitate rocks and stack them real nice. . . even without the little green guy on her back. But Adora was still speaking. Alex tuned back in.

". . . And the Rebel run is always a good time." Adora was just finishing up.

Glimmer got a rather dreamy look on her face. "I wonder if the Red Knight will show up this year."

"I hope not" Bow said."

"That's just because he beat you last year, Bow" Kowl put in.

"Who's the Red Knight?" Courtnie asked. Glimmer told them the story of last year's festival when the Red Knight had appeared from part unknown, bested Bow and lent the Rebels a hand. He was unknown and would reveal himself when Etheria was free.

"So you think he'll be back?" Alex asked.

"I hope so" Courtnie said. "I'd love to meet him!" Alex rolled her eyes as Courtnie got on her horse and offered a hand to Alex. The small party rode off.

In the Fright Zone, Hordak was chuckling with glee. The Bright Moon festival was today and the rebel would come out of their forest refuge to join in the merriment. There he could crush them. "Where is my new weapon!" he demanded. His new pet demon, always at his side, growled threateningly.

"Uhh right here Mighty Hordak," Grizzlor and Leech dragged a large cannon-like device into the throne room. Hordak snorted with disgust. "Why is it not attached to the transport!!" He cried.

"Uhh, shuckt Right away schluck Oh Evil One," Leech said. The black Demon thing growled at them. The henchmen looked worried.

"Never mind. Shadow Weaver!" Hordak demanded. "Fix this!"

Shadow Weaver hissed, and waved her hands in the air.. In a burst of magic, the cannon disappeared, and Shadow Weaver turned to Hordak. "It is done."

"Excellent. Today I crush the rebels!! Let's go crash the party!!" He laughed evily. Leech and Grizzlor soon joined in. Hordak stopped laughing. "What are you laughing at?" He demanded. "No one laughs at the mighty Hordak!" He pressed a button and the pair dropped through the trapdoor. He laughed and stroked his pet. "You will soon have your fun, my pet."

The festival was in full swing when the Rebels arrived. Alex jumped off, followed by Courtnie who clanked as she hit the ground. "What are you carrying, anyway?" Alex asked as she heard the racket.

"My usual. Come on, let go see what's up." Alex rolled her eyes again. Courtnie's "standard" was a dagger, a sword , a whip and a chakram. Not that she knew how to use the last two, but as she said "If you get to play Phoenix I get to play Xena." Alex had to give her that one.

The girls looked around. There was a great deal of revelry about, and the rest of the rebels were clustered about Angella. Alex led Courtnie over. "Good morning your highness."

"Good morning. " Angella responded. "Are either of you planning to join in any of the events today?"

"I don't know. Maybe." Alex said. She really had no idea what was going on today, as she had pretty much spaced out when Adora had spoke of it earlier and didn't want to look like a total ass.

Courtnie was about to respond when there was a great stir among the crowd and a figure approached the queen. It was a Knight clad in red armor. "The Red Knight" Glimmer whispered excitedly.

"Your Highness" The Knight said. I have returned to again compete in the Run."

"Yesss!!!" came Glimmer from behind Alex.

"And who are these lovely ladies?" The Knight asked. "I don't remember you from last year."

"This is Alexandra and Courtnie. They are here from far away to help the Rebellion." Angella introduced them with the standard story. It had been decided that it would be a bad idea to let the word spread where the girls were really from. Angella turned back to Courtnie. "You were about to tell me what you were going to do today."

"Well I was actually thinking about running" she said.

"Ahh, but such a lovely lady as yourself should be surrounded by Knights waiting to champion you, and willing to fight and run for you. You need not run and exert you lovely self," the Knight said..

Alex had never seen her friend turn that red that fast. She grabbed Courtnie's arm. "Uhh we have to ah go to the ah. . you know. . girl stuff.. Angella, please excuse us." She dragged Courtnie off. "Wait for me" Glimmer called. The two of them hauled Courtnie to a nearby alley where she could cool off.

Courtnie sputtered "How dare he . . I mean . . he. . . I thought you said he was a nice guy!!"

"Well, He just paid you a compliment I think and well he doesn't know where you're really from!!"

"Well where I come from that idea is about 400 years out of date!"

"So Court, what are you saying, exactly?" Alex asked.

"He's mine. Help me stretch out. I'm going to beat his ass into the ground!!" Alex and Courtnie set to the business of stretching out while Glimmer described the race to them. Then she went off to tell Angella that Courtnie was definitely racing and to put her name on the official list.

"So do I get to hold your hardware?" Alex asked. Courtnie nodded and pulled off her sword and chakram and handed them to Alex. "I might need the other stuff." Alex nodded, bracing her friend's back. "Come on, the race is gonna start soon."

At the starting line, Courtnie slowly worked her way up to the front where Bow and The Knight were positioned. "Ready for a race, boys?" she asked. the starting sound blared. Courtnie took off. "See you at the finish line!!" She took off.

Courtnie ran, pacing herself. She could hear the Knight's armor clanking behind her and she could hear Bow panting close also. They came to the first obstacle, a pond. There were several rafts for the runners to use, but Courtnie ignored them and dived headfirst into the pond and came up swimming. She could hear the rafts behind her. She dared not look back though. and felt the water give a little when the Knight's raft came up alongside her. He was using his lance as a paddle. Courtnie ignored him and swam harder. They reached the shore at about the same time, and Courtnie took of through the woods again, trying to put as much distance between herself and the others before the next obstacle -- the wall.

After a short while, the wall loomed in her vision. "As long as we're allowed to use stuff" she thought. She pulled out her whip. . . There was a small rock protrusion on the wall. She snapped the whip and it curled neatly around the rock. She began to climb. The clanking of armor was close behind her and she had as stray thought "How in the world is her going to get over this?"

She had her answer in a few seconds ads the Knight pole vaulted over the wall. Courtnie climbed faster and looked down. Bow was just starting his ascent. "Did he . . .?" She asked

"Same as last year. Same tricks," Bow grunted. Courtnie leaped over the wall and sprinted to catch up with the Knight. The long run was here and it was good mile back to the village, and long-distance running was her specialty.

Back at the village there rebels were eagerly awaiting the runners' return. Alex was straining her eyes looking for any sign of the contestants when she saw a black spot on the horizon. Not a runner but something else. Something bad. A Horde flier. "Hey guys. . . Uhh we're about to have some company!" She cried. "There's a bigass Horde thingy headed this way. . .We are in some serious shit!"

"What?" Adora asked. Sometimes it was hard to understand what Alex was saying when she lapsed into what the rest of the rebels called "Earthisms" and she got quite incomprehensible.

"Big bad ship come here make party go boom." Alex said. "Where are they?" She asked, looking for the racers.

Courtnie had the Knight in her sights. He was just ahead of her and the village was just beyond that. She pushed harder to catch up with him. She had to beat him, and she would. All femalehood was on the line here, not just her own wounded pride. She soon caught up with the Knight. He gave a sort of surprised noise as she passed him, but she didn't bother with a reply or even a snide comment which would have been fun. She needed all of her strength to win this race. She was within inches of the finish when a bolt of energy streaked into the middle of the village. She yelped and sprinted the last few feet and came across the line, but no one was there to greet her, the entire village was in a tizzy. And Adora was nowhere to be found .

As soon as Alex had pointed out the Horde weapon, Adora had quietly slipped off to find Spirit. When the energy bolt came from a good mile away, she dashed off to a secluded corner. "For the Honor of Greyskull!" She became She-Ra and Spirit became Swift Wind. They hurried to the village, were there was nothing but mass confusion. There were people running everywhere, grabbing weapons and running for cover. The Horde machine fired another bolt. This one was at closer range and left a smoking hole in the ground.

Alex ran up to Courtnie and stuffed her sword and chakram into her hands. "Congrats Court. However I think we have a bigger problem right now." Alex pointed to the Horde ship, which they could now see was accompanied by many other smaller ships and a legion of troopers, both robots and regular troops. "I think we're in trouble" Courtnie said.

"I'm inclined to agree with you. Look, She-Ra is here, common let's go make ourselves useful." The girls ran up the large group clustered around She-Ra, Glimmer and Bow. "What's the deal?" Alex asked.

"We are going to have to take out that big cannon first. Alex you are going to work with She-Ra on that. The rest of us are going to distract the ground troops." Bow was giving out the orders. "Let's go. Remember, for Freedom!" Everyone scattered to their respective assignments. Alex looked at Courtnie. "You be careful."

"You too." Courtnie got an evil gleam in her eye. "`Two in the box,'"

"`Ready to go'" Alex chimed in "`We be fast'"

"And they be slow!!'" they finished together. The girls slapped a high five. "I feel the need. the need for speed!!" Alex cried. She took off to find out what She-Ra wanted her to do. Courtnie got her sword out and readied herself for a good fight. "Hey Alex. you think that . . well, ah . . "

"Will he have our little friend with him?" Alex chewed her lower lip in thought. "Probably. Can you handle it?"

"I used to hate him so much Alex I thought he was such an ass. Now I would be really happy if he were back with us again." Courtnie looked for a few minutes very much like a little lost girl, looking for an adult to answer all of life's problems again. Then her face resolved itself into a game face. "I can handle it. Let's go." Alex looked at her. She wasn't sure that Courtnie was as ready for this as she had convinced herself that she was. She-Ra came up behind them. "Come on Alex, you and I are leading the group against the Horde cannon. Courtnie you are needed on the ground. I know of your pain, I can feel it, but you must get past that. We will get your friend back and restore him, but for now your task lies ahead of you. Come." She rode away, and Alex shrugged. "Good luck, you. Be careful."

"You too." The two of them went their separate ways. Alex looked up as Courtnie went to join the ground force. The flier with the cannon was now almost directly above them. The thing was enormous, nearly the size of a 747 Alex thought, with the firepower of a tank. This was not going to be easy. Especially on the ground.

Courtnie looked over the legion of robots approaching. There were so many of them, and so few rebels here. There was no way they were going to win this one, especially with that giant cannon. Courtnie steeled herself. "Get rid of the leaders first. They're drones, they need a leader to function." she told herself. "Here they come!!" Someone shouted, just as the swarm topped the hill and spilled into the village, lasers blasting at the resistance force. "AAAAHHHHHH!" Courtnie screamed as she was caught up in the fray. There were two robots on her almost instantly. She screamed and fought back, ducking under the first laser blasts and managing to disarm one with her sword. She ducked through the second one's legs and rolled across the ground to grab the lost laser blaster. She found it and rolled up, blasting the two troopers from a kneeling position. She looked around "Gimme some sugar baby!" She panted, looking for her next target. Catra was a few yards away, directing her troops. Courtnie smiled and started over, slicing and dicing as she went. The Knight came up beside her "My lady please seek refuge from these evil foes!" She looked at him. "Look buster get off my back, I can take care of myself!" She rode away, slicing and dicing as she went.

Alex looked up. There was the cannon bigger than life, and twice as deadly. She wondered how in the world they were going to break it. It looked rather well armored and was hovering a good fifty feet off the ground, well out of the range of any of her fire powers. She-Ra came over. "Get on!" she ordered. Alex complied. They took off toward the ship.

"I'm going to try and get on the cannon and disable it somehow. I won't get hurt if the metal's hot, I can't be hurt by heat. Just get me close enough to jump." She-Ra nodded. Alex stood up on Swift Wind's back, readying herself for the jump. Swift Wind came closer and closer to the flier. "This is as close as I can get," he said. Alex nodded, closed her eyes for a second, and jumped.

She was hanging in the air for a moment, before she caught the flier, holding on to one of the landing skids, now useless because of the giant cannon on the bottom. She pulled herself up to sit on the skid; tit was that big. Alex looked over the underbelly of the flier. Not much machinery exposed here, Hordak was getting smart, everything was encased in some kind of metal. "Not as easy as I hoped" she though. She looked over at She-Ra, who was trying to draw the fire of the smaller guns and deflecting them with her sword. Most of them were hitting the ship, but doing no damage. Whatever the ship was armored with, it was strong stuff. "Even if I blow this thing up, it probably won't damage the flier," she thought. "Now what?" She felt the cannon's heat near her legs. It was readying to fire again.

Courtnie had decided to make a quick side trip. She made it to the stables and jumped onto Wildfire. The horse could help her, if anything by presenting a more formidable profile. She rode out, to find Catra, who was now just outside the stable, directing her troops. "Hey fuzz brain, why don't you do something besides boss everyone else around!!"

Catra looked around to find the source of the insults flying at her. The Earth brat was in front of her, on horseback, holding a sword. "Mrrooowwww!! What do yoou want, brrat?"

"Your scalp would be nice, and for you, the point of my sword?" Courtnie phrased it as a question, just before she slid off the horse and kicked Catra full in the chest, knocking her to her knees. Catra got back up of course, and the duel began.

Alex realize if the cannon fired again, first of all she was not going to be sitting here much longer, secondly at this close range there wouldn't be much left of the town let alone of either side of combatants. This was serious. She looked at the cannon again and had a sudden thought. Now if she could only pull it off. "If I picked a time to fly it would be now," she thought, casing the spell Casta had taught her. Now or never, she thought and she jumped off the skid, creating a bubble of hot air around her. She felt herself falling, but not as fast as she should have been. She pulled the heat in closer to her and felt herself rising. She was flying!!

Courtnie looked up at Catra, who had her pinned to the ground. Courtnie managed a hand free, took hold of a large hank of blue hair and pulled hard. The resulting screech from Catra was enough to deafen someone, and Courtnie took advantage of the pain her adversary was in. She grabbed the mask off of Catra's head with one hand and tossed her aside with the other. She grabbed her sword off the ground and threw the mask in the air. With one neat motion, she sliced it in half on the way back down. It fell at her feet, in two pieces. "Here Kitty Kitty," she teased. Catra was in no mood to fight her any longer. She ran away, looking for Hordak to face her punishment rather than face Courtnie again. Courtnie tucked the two pieces of mask onto Wildfire's saddlebags before letting him run to the forest. She looked for another target, but the ground crew had things well under control. She looked up to the cannon, and got the shock of her life -- Alex was hovering in mid air!!

Alex had no time to celebrate her victory over gravity, she had another victory to worry about. There in front of her was the flier. Hordak had spotted her and was closing in on her. She was ready to face him, but not what came after her. The black form of the Demon-Greg flew from the open hatch straight at Alex. "Shit!" She said aloud. The Demon took the opportunity to attack her. He flew straight at her, and Alex dropped out of the way. This was bad. Where was She-Ra?

Alex got her answer in a few seconds when the heat from the cannon blast nearly knocked her over. The blast had missed the village and gone shooting off into space, thanks to She-Ra who had twisted the cannon. It was still in working order though, and that was a problem. The other problem. . . Alex had an idea. "Come and get me you pathetic excuse for my best friend's ex!" The demon charged at her, and Alex flew upwards. "Come on pigface, shoot the gun again," she thought between blasts. She got her wish. Apparently, Hordak had not yet realized what was going on and had shot again. "Sorry Greg," she though, as the blast whizzed by, missing her by inches. As she had planned, Greg caught it square in the chest. She took a break from flying, hovering there waiting.

The demon was . . . recovering!!?? The blast had hardly any effect on him at all! He looked at Alex with a "boy that was dumb" look. "Uh Oh" Alex thought. She looked at the demon, closing in on her, and to the cannon. Only one shot at this, and if she was wrong she was toast. She summoned every last bit of strength she had and put it into one huge fireball. She threw it.

It shot through the air, and just as Alex wanted it to, she managed to put it into the mouth of the cannon. Alone it would hardly have damaged it. The cannon was hot from Hordak's overuse of it, and the fireball heated the metal high enough to melt. The mouth melted shut, just as Hordak tried to fire it again. "AAAHHHH" could be heard far and wide when the cannon exploded. Of course as Alex had guessed, it didn't hurt the flier at all, but there was no more superweapon to use. Alex had a few seconds to feel proud of herself before she fell. She felt the sensation of falling, and stopping suddenly. She opened her eyes, not even realizing she had closed them, to find herself on Swift Wind's back again. "Where is he?"

"Hordak has retreated. He took your friend with him," She-Ra said. "Not Courtnie, she's down there and she looks mighty proud of herself."

They landed and Alex got off into a huge bear hug from her best friend. "That was Awesome!" Courtnie laughed. The Knight came up to them "That was an excellent idea. And to you," he turned to Courtnie. "I am sorry I underestimated you. I have never seen someone with skills such as yours."

"That's okay, I should realize that cultures are different everywhere and just because my culture dictates something, it's not the rule." She smiled ruefully. "Friends?" she asked.

"Of course," the Knight said. "Perhaps you will honor me me with a dance before I go?"

"Sure thing!" Courtnie said. Alex looked over at Glimmer, who was turning as green as anything watching the little scene before them. Alex slid up beside her. "If looks could kill Glimmer, you'd be fine in the Fright Zone with the one you have on your face now," she whispered. Glimmer didn't reply, she just flounced off. Alex looked around. "Let's PARTY!!"

## The End


End file.
